KELOLAND News is reporting that a search warrant was executed in Aberdeen on 8/7/2017. Aberdeen Police seized $800 cash plus 2.12 pounds of marijuana (Aberdeen Police say the value of the drugs is $6000). I feel like law enforcement gets a lot of grief in the media, so I want to say right now that my opinions are not aimed at the officers who did their job here but at the policy makers who have them doing stupid stuff like this in the first place. Very, very often I feel people don’t appreciate that it is not the officers themselves who make the laws they must enforce but your elected officials you were too busy to vote for in the last election.

I have to question how much was spent on this raid. As more and more states move toward legalizing marijuana, South Dakota remains in the dark ages. In a time when the state is looking at hiking tuition on students at our state schools, while at the same time South Dakota is the 2nd highest state in the country for students who graduate in loan debt, I don’t see how it’s possible that we can have the extra thousands of dollars in court costs and law enforcement hours to chase 2 lbs of pot. The accomplishments of this raid can be canceled out by a bus trip to a “Free” state.

Our governor tells our young people to abandon their aspirations and lower their expectations because the state wants well-trained subjects, not well-educated citizens. While at the same time it throws them in jail for using substances that allow them to escape mental drudgery, if only briefly. And then “Leaders” in South Dakota can’t fathom why young people flee the state in droves and spends still more money on half-hearted attempts to lure them back.

I guess South Dakota should start saving money now to build the wall we’ll need to keep workers in as the rest of the country moves forward in time without us. Don’t worry; they’ll just tell the voters here that it’s to keep immigrants out and it will get built with popular support. Seriously South Dakota, get your shit together.